Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-05-09
al,se, suit ana a Re,rospect.

filed as soon as sent in.
A Libel suit ana a Retrospect.
There is something amusing as well
as peculiar in the libel suit OF the
proprietors of the San Franciso Bat-
lstia against the proprietor OF the
Chronicle in that city. Its distinctive
peculiarity-one which is not often
met with in the rather phenomenal
features of daily newsrapering In this
work-a-day worlds that it is pressed
some ten years after it was first
brought. Generally a decade is
time sufficiently long to admit OF the
buri i of enm tiles begotten OF passing
controversies. A celebrated English
statesman once said that politicians
should SO regulate their conduct as If
the enemies of to-day might be the
friends o. to- morrow, and the friends
Of to-day the enemies OF tomorrow.
The actual intercourse OF sagacious
Journalists is usually based upon this
apborism evolved from the mind Ct Il
keen observer. Their hostllitles,
while often EN- bittered, are rarely OF
an enduring cast. The first Napoleon,
as he drove through Prussia with the
Duke de Calaincourt by his side, In
a sledge drawn by fast horses, re-
marked to his companion, THESE
Prussians will be debating tomorrow
whether they ought not to have ar
rested me yesterday" Lately the
Messrs. Fitch & Pickering have
awakened to the belief that they
ought to have prosecuted libel suit
against the Chronicle ten years ago
and they are doing it now. They
have not oply violated the counsel
of Christ not to allow the sun to go
down on their wrath, but they bring
up the old animosity fresh and smil-
ing after it had been supposed to
have beer thrown, to employ a
shakspearean phrase, "as an aims OF
oblivion into the wallet OF time"
The amusing feature of this vener-
able libel suit is the ever fresh and
lively animosity shown to Messrs.
Fitch & Pickering by their brethren
of the press. They look around in
vain for sympathy amongst their fel-
lows of the San Francisco guild. Not
only are the dailies OF the metropolis
loaded with epigrams and stinglng
paragraphs against these Nestors OF
the press OF the Golden Gate, but
this caustic spirit ramifies into the
weeklies. One would suppose, from
the general tenor OF comment, that
two well known criminals had been
run to earth, and that great public
benefit would accrue from their ex-
tirpa,ion. This gracious tone oftheir
rivals proves at least one thing, viz;
that the Cal and Bulletin are still
very prosperous journals. Your
newspaper man, no more than your
sportsman, ever wastes his ammuni-
ton on "dead ducks" There may
be great ground to question the wis
dom of the revival of this antique
libel suit, on the principal that 1t Is
not well to launch boomerang, but
the great interest taken in the Messrs.
Fitch and Pickering shows that they
are still not without significance in
the affairs OF San Francisco, and that
their twin journals, the CoH and But
letin, are yet rated as powers in the
land.
There ia an instructive retrospect
embodied in the evidence brought
out in this trial. Fifteen years ago
the Central Pacific Railway made
yery determined efforts to acquire
Goat Island, as San Francisco ter
minus for their transcontinental rail-
way. There might be many and
substantial reasons why California at
large and the people OF the United
States should object to this surren-
der, but, on the other hand, there
were abundant reasons why the in
habitsnts of San Francisco should
gladly second any efforts in Congress
made or its acquisition. If the Cen
tral Pacific Railway had been sue
cessful in its attempt, the depot and
wharves of that corporation would
have been located in San Francisco
instead Of in Oakland. As a result,
there would to-day be millions OF as
sessment valuations in the City and
County of San Francisco which now
a .ure in the tax levies of the city
across the bay. What i'll effect
would have followed to he people OF
the Golden Gate by this addition to
their assessment rolls it is at this dis
tsncs very hard to see. And yet the !